Come Sip The Red Rum
by xHearMyHowlx
Summary: He gaped. "So, you're saying, Professor, that there's a place... beyond the veil?" This was harder than I thought. A boy this young shouldn't be exposed to things like this, but it had to be done. "Yes," I murmured, "and that is where Sirius is trapped."


**Author's Note:**

**Remus Lupin's point of view. Of course, I love him so much I had to add him to this story, too. I had this idea one morning at about four and I've been dying to begin it for, like, 24 hours, heh heh…**

**Anywho, if you like my fics, I'd like it if you browsed my others. Yes, there is a large variety, from serious and depressing, to random and idiotic, to romantic and dramatic, and beyond. I try to please a large variety of people, if you can't already tell already.**

**Set after the death of Sirius Black. Plot altered so don't make complaints based on the fact I don't follow the books and movies all the time. Or most of the time. **

**Also, reviews make me smile hours after they're posted, so if you want even more after reading this chapter one or two will inspire me to continue it. They make me feel like I have to write more on it, thus, getting me in the mood, and finally, getting writers block (OUCH. Got hit with one 'o those once. NOT GOOD.) out of my path.**

**PS: I am a very religious person, so this is awkward writing a fiction about the after life being different than I believe it is. But I'm trying to make it sound like some kind of fantasy mystery movie I'd like to see.**

**PPS: May have slight references to folk lore, Van Helsing, Dracula, Ghost Rider, and such, for dramatic effect. You know, I have to collect the best for my fics.**

**WARNING: Probably going to have a more serious air to it. I'm used to that kind of writing, sorry. Dark. Spooky. Grim. Depressing. Enjoy, my fellow devourers…**

**WARNING, again: Will leave readers with lots of unanswered questioned unless you pay close attention to detail in later chapters.**

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I had decided I had had enough. Enough was enough, right? One man can only take too much of something. I'm not usually the one to cave in, but these… these… _nightmares_, they keep coming. The memories keep flowing. Awaking in a cold sweat, tangled up in my bed sheets was not my idea of getting over something, so, as a loyal Gryffindor, I had to do something about it. I had to tell him. I didn't _want _to, I had no choice other _than to. _My life was getting worse and worse as it progressed, and at some point, which I decided must have been then, I had to reach a breaking point. My breaking point.

I stood up shakily from the tree I had been leaning against. I listened to an owl in the distance. The moon was waning, so I knew I didn't have to worry about that quite yet. The graveyard I stood in… it felt… I can't describe it. I knew people weren't really dead there. They were just… waiting. Waiting, that's all. Silently. Miserably. All of them. They were whispering to me in my sleep.

_Help us._

_We know you're the only one who'll do something about it._

_You're our only hope._

The voiced sounded like the kind a muggle would hear in a horror film. Cheesy, but it still made my skin crawl. Not because I was afraid of them, but because I knew they were _real_. And there. Haunting me.

My breathing was heavy as I felt the pull of their calls. I resisted as best I could, but finally, like with my werewolf instincts, I couldn't control them. My head snapped back and I panted into the sky, groaning with the little energy I had to groan; the rest was going towards standing up and not fainting. They were… breathing on me. Their cold breath slipped down the back and sides of my dirty robes. They weren't breathing, they were… hissing. Growling. What ever spirits did to torment you. I felt hands grab my robes and pull me, back and forth, like a match to see which one could get me first. I groaned again, louder, my strength gone, I could feel it. Several times I had been close to death, but never this close. It still surprised me how little everyone knew about spirits, how they didn't know they could bring you down with them.

Then I felt cold hands grope the collar of my robes, pulling me forward, towards them. My vision was blurred… no, a second later, I was blind. But these hands felt safer to me than those of the others, so I let go and tumbled into whoever was dragging me. They felt firm and strong, and suddenly I trusted them. I was still afraid to know who it was I was trusting, though. It could've been anybody. Anybody could've convinced me to give up. But this… _somebody_… They seemed to want me away from the voices and cold breathing, the wind. The spirits.

I landed with a thud against a hard chest. A human chest. I said a silent prayer it wasn't that of Winston Whisperwood. If it was, I was doomed, and so was the rest of the innocent world. But still I went, trusting, hoping. The hands went around my sides and through my arm over a shoulder, trying to get me to stand. I groaned at the pain in my legs, but suddenly they went numb. I heard the someone curse under his breath as he almost toppled over me in an attempt to keep me conscience, at least for a little while. It was a man.

_Please don't be Whisperwood._

His right arm hugged me to his side as his left grabbed around in his robes for something. A wand. Great, Whisperwood was going to kill me. But why wouldn't he just let the spirits finish me off like they were trying to? Why did he need me… _away _from them? Perhaps that man wanted to save me…? And, I thought Whisperwood didn't use a wand…

He sighed and hugged me closer. I felt him bend over a little with my weight. I moaned with the only ounce of energy I had left. (Of course, moaning and groaning was my only way of communication. If I were to try and talk, I'd make no sense. I didn't care about making sense, but my mind wasn't functioning right.) My head fell on a hard shoulder on my left and my hair flopped carelessly into my face. A felt the tightening feeling as it surrounded both myself and the mystery man who was saving my life. We were apparating, but my mind wasn't focusing correctly. It was still at that graveyard. I hoped it didn't cause me to lose a limb due to splinting. In mid-apparation, I gave in and fell, not even bothering to keep a grip on my hero. Splinting and even death seemed easier than surviving at that point…

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"_You_… _complete_… _arrogant_…" Was I dreaming? Someone was muttering rather crossly. And pacing. I could hear pacing. But I still couldn't see anything. He was furious. Who he was and what about, don't have a clue. But he was furious. A frustrated sigh. I heard the swish of cloth as my trousers were whisked off by magic. I felt liquid. Hot liquid. Blood. Non-human blood. _My_ blood. I decided it was best to keep my eyes closed. This man was rather mad at me, and I was injured. That always spelled out good news…

"After I told you, _a million times_…!" He was shouting, but quietly. Maybe he didn't want me to wake up. Maybe he knew he'd just kill me when I did, and wanted to postpone my death for a brief while. Why? No idea. Maybe he felt he needed to get even angrier at me in order to enjoy my murder.

My nose twitched when I felt a wand prodding at my right hip joint. The wand froze and I heard him catch his shallow breath. He knew I was awake. _Damn. _I flinched and my heavy eyelids managed to drift open. I felt… _drugged. _I couldn't move a muscle if I wanted to, and I felt completely useless.

His cold eyes glared into mine. If I knew better I would have sworn they were those of Whisperwood's, but the greasy black hair that swung in front of them, ignored, made me feel a little better. Not a lot, but a little. I felt I might actually have a chance to live until dawn. He squinted and I wheezed, or something, I don't know. Something pathetic that was meant to be a way of thanking him. But, as I stated before, it did sound rather pathetic, so it was ignored. I flushed, embarrassed by the lame way I had of communication when I was useless. I liked to sound strong and stable, but I couldn't manage it.

His head snapped back down and he traced my hip joint. I tried again. "Wh-what-"

"_Silence, mutt, or you'll bleed to death_!" He whispered crossly. I immediately snapped my lips back together. Okay, I didn't _snap_ them back together, but it felt like it, with the energy that I had. They relaxed closed. I meekly lowered my eyes to where he was bent over, brow furrowed, concentrating on something extremely difficult. I caught my breath as I saw my right leg was broken off completely from my hip. A gash lay open, the blood oozing out slowly. At least he'd stopped the most of it. But… how much blood had I lost anyways? I groaned again. I tended to do that an awful lot. But I almost smiled when I thought back to what he'd said about me bleeding to death. (_Everyone knows_ werewolves can only be killed by a silver bullet.)

His hooked nose was dangerously close to the gash. My blood was black-ish blue-ish, like the color of a raven. It shined like oil. Disgusting. I tried (but failed) to move myself further away from his face. Severus Snape wasn't the best person to have sticking their nose in your blood, if you know what I mean. But, thankfully, this vampire had a great deal of self control. He was strong against his instincts, and I'd admired it my whole life.

He sealed the wound the best he could, then repeated his spell as if in a trance. A shot of pain vibrated through my body. "ARG!!" I shouted, gaining my strength back all of a sudden. I still couldn't move away from him. Apparently, Severus had taken extreme caution and had decided to bind me to his couch until I was healed.

"Shut up! _You_ did this to yourself, you _weak, useless_…" He couldn't find the right word. He growled. "It was your fault your splint was this bad! How could you let go of me while _apparating_? It's not that hard to hang on!" He shook his head and stood up straight, stepping away from me to examine his handiwork. Thank goodness Severus was a natural at healing spells.

I glanced around, noticing we were in his home at Spinner's End. His candles were lit eerily, his fireplace crackling. The leather bound books on the many cases that covered the walls looked older than dirt. He had his hands on his hips, not usual for Severus. He usually preferred the whole bit with his arms folded, but he was serious, and everyone _knew _he was serious, when he had his hands on his hips, standing straight forward, eyes looking murderous. I bit my lip.

"How many times have I told you how dangerous it is down there? That graveyard is…" He through his hands up in frustration, the random candles floating in the air flickering with the sudden gush of air thrown on them. His robes drifted back to his sides. He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his forehead.

I could feel my energy growing, so I decided to try and talk with actual words.

"Severus," I wheezed, "thank you." He seemed taken aback by my response. He was just so used to yelling that my behavior always caught him off guard, no matter how long we'd known each other. He pursed his lips, soon regaining the Severus attitude that he'd been stripped of without warning.

"_Thank you _isn't what I was _expecting_." He snarled. I fumbled awkwardly to sit up.

"Then what was it you were expecting?" I asked sincerely. He grunted and began his chant to regain my right leg. Like I needed it; my limp was so bad already. Curse that Greyback. It slowly began to reform, and I noted that he hadn't given me enough pain reliever to get rid of the searing pain I got when it came back. I probably deserved that.

"I was _expecting_-"

"Me to suddenly kneel down in front of you and beg for your forgiveness? Offer to serve you as my lord for eternity?" I chuckled and his frown deepened.

"_Basically_." I had never seen this man so angry with a person. I looked at him, eyebrows raised. He squinted at me. "You know what I mean. You, going out, _alone_, into a graveyard where only the dead or half-dead can enter, _expecting _to save the world, all by yourself, with _no help_, _no_ warning, no _plan_…"

"Severus you must understand I didn't mean it-"

"Well, if you didn't _mean_ it then you wouldn't have _done_ it!" He spat. Then he backed up and collapsed, exhausted, into the armchair across from the couch on which I was still lounging.

I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. He raised and eyebrow, seeing as it was all he could do. Apparently logging an unconscious wizard through half way apparition from a graveyard after being attacked by spirits was energy draining to both sides of the story. He looked like he'd given up. He flopped his head to rest against the back of the chair.

"I was just trying to find out what they wanted me to do." I said quietly. He sighed again. I'd said that before, but I didn't care, for it was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. "Severus… my dreams, they're… Severus, I had to. I had no choice, you don't understand-"

"_Dreams_?" His face paled dangerously as his quiet voice barely escaped his thin, cruel lips. I gulped. _This _was when he was most dangerous. "Your… _dreams_… are the reason… you put yourself in that… _situation_…?" His hands grasped the sides of his armchair with such force I heard the wood underneath begin to crack and splinter. _Damn vampire strength._

"I need to tell you something." I admitted. He relaxed sarcastically, preparing for a long, rambling lecture. An explanation. But it was the truth, and I needed to speak it. After all, Severus was one of the only men I had to turn to left.

"Go on." He murmured icily.

I cleared my throat again. How did it go so dry? _Man_, I was thirsty… off topic. "Severus," I began, sitting up even more, wincing slightly when I brought my knees up to my chest. "Ever since I watched Sirius fall into the veil… I've been having dreams about…" I choked on the last word. Sirius's name was spoken too soon. I swallowed and tried again. "I meant to tell you that very night he died, that I heard… voices. They were… talking to me and they… they…" I couldn't finish, but his eyes flickered in understanding. I always knew Severus was brilliant.

He slowly stood up and turned around to run his fingers along the spines of his books collection. They must have been hundreds of years old… "There we are," he whispered, almost in a sensual manner, as he slipped a large, blood red, leather book out from between two others. He turned it over and gracefully stroked it. His eyes softened. "I knew you would come in handy…" Blowing the dust off, he turned back to me and looked, blankly, in my direction. He clutched the book to his chest and I understood I probably should stand up. So I did.

He took a step toward me and I cautiously kept my distance, not budging. What was it that man had in mind? Could've been anything. He gingerly lifted the book forward a few inches, still holding it gently, and reached out his arms in front of me. "This." He purred. I swallowed but did not take a hold of his precious book. I'd never seen Severus Snape act like that before, and I had a strange suspicion that when I would try and take it he'd snatch it back. He lifted it closer to me, his arm almost completely extended. He dropped his left hand to his side and looked at me seriously. "This book will explain everything, Remus." Remus? Did he just call me by my first name? He must have gotten splintched too, except instead of his leg being removed it was the sane part of his harsh brain.

I suspiciously took it from him and flipped to the first page. "What's it about?" I asked quietly. A malevolent grin smeared itself across his face.

"The curse beyond the veil, Remus." He breathed. I almost gasped, but my heart was already beating too fast for myself to be able to catch my breath so quickly. "Yes, I have read this book, many times. I… stole it from the restricted section in the library at Hogwarts on my last day. It had always looked so intriguing, and I never got to finish it, so I took it. Nobody knows this, Remus. I have stolen the lot of my precious reads from various places. I found some, too. In rubbish bins I find old muggle reads. I occasionally find a dark magic book that's not for sale. Remus, this is why I know these things. I steal my knowledge. It is wrong, but I know it will, and I know it has, come in handy someday, some point in time. I can feel it." His vampire intuition still amazed me. I couldn't focus on what I was looking at.

"So you know more about the graveyard than-"

"Than you assumed. Yes." He finished eagerly. Maybe having Severus with me wasn't such a bad idea after all. "And for ages I have searched and searched for the one person in need of this book. Finally, I have found you need it. At last, my intuition succeeds once more! Now that I know everything, and you know everything, this book will help us. Help us save them."

I ran my fingers over the old, yellowed parchment. A breeze blew in through an open window and the candles went out. But I could still see Severus's shining, devious eyes. I looked into them serenely. "Help us save the world." I finished. He smiled his strange smile again, and with a nod, I knew I'd found the way. _Sirius's_ way, out.


End file.
